Kennon-Green & Co. Global Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Investment Advisory

Obesity and Waist-to-Hip Ratio

Female Porn Stars, Waist-to-Hip Ratios, Gay Neurological Patterns, Morbid Obesity, Fat Shaming, and Poop Sticks

I’m going to regret that title tomorrow.  I know it. Two of the books I’ve been meaning to delve into sometime this year are about evolutionary biology; how the incentives that lead to reproductive and social success (which itself is a facilitator of reproductive success) shape everything from our government institutions to the popularity of…

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Eduard Derule/Shutterstock

Mental Model: The Culture Code

After writing about using words to your advantage in life and business, I began thinking of one of my all-time favorite mental models.  It comes from legendary marketing psychologist Clotaire Rapaille, who wrote about it in his treatise “The Culture Code“. Before we get into that, let me say that Dr. Clotaire Rapaille caught my attention so…

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Using Words to Your Advantage in Life and Business

Using Words to Your Advantage in Life and Business

Words and phrases are interesting things.  Each represents a package of ideas and associations, instantly unwrapped the moment we encounter them.  If I say, “She stood in a cold, dark, damp basement on a winter day, with only a bit of gray, overcast sky visible through small windows around the perimeter; the rhythm of ice rain hitting…

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QVC Moon Planet or Star Debate

Watch QVC Hosts Debate Whether the Moon is a Planet or Star (and a Lesson on Basic Economics)

If you need something to brighten up your day (or make you feel despondent depending on how you look at it), this is living proof that all you have to do to be successful in life is give people what they want at a price that is higher than the cost it takes you to deliver it to them, with sufficient margins for risk, capital tie-up, and opportunity cost.  You can literally fail 3rd grade science and, if you satisfy a want, make six, seven, or even eight figures a year.  The system we have now forgives a lot of shortcomings if you prove useful in other areas.

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Mental Model by Joshua Kennon

Mental Model: Intergenerational Transmission and What It Has to Do With Adrian Peterson Beating His Child

Mental Model: Intergenerational Transmission and What It Has to Do With Adrian Peterson Beating His Child A huge percentage of the people in this community are fans of the mental model concept – ideas, like tools, that can be used to analyze, study, and understand both why and how something is happening – made popular by Charles…

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Aga Cooker 1

The AGA Cooker – How a Blind Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Created One of the World’s Greatest Stoves

In 1912, one of Sweden’s greatest inventors, physicist Gustaf Dalén, was blinded during an accident involving pressure containment for his gas accumulators.  He had created a device for use in unmanned lighthouses.  This device lit itself at night and extinguished in the morning, improving marine safety, thereby saving countless lives and immeasurable property.  Despite the setback of…

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Hurricanes with Female Names Kill More Deadly

Study Claims Hurricanes with Female Names More Deadly Because People Take Them Less Seriously

Whether identifying changes in public policy that could do exponential good or revealing internal assumptions about the way the world works, mental models are the best construct I’ve ever come across to categorize, analyze, study, document, and reflect upon the universe.  Yesterday, The Washington Post published an example of cognitive bias when it detailed how how subconscious beliefs can…

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Kennon-Green & Co. Global Asset Management, Wealth Management, and Investment Advisory